B
Houston Texans
The steal of the weekend belongs to the Texans and Fitzgerald: B.
by jaytex ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 6 steals
· 3 reaches
The rest of the league will want that one back. Ryan Fitzgerald tumbling to the Texans in the Round 7 slot is a gift they did not have to think twice about. A sturdy weekend that grades out a B.
Reaching for Thornton Jr. left real value on the table behind him. They punted on edge rusher, and it is the miss that keeps the grade honest. Small wins on the phones, but wins all the same.
In sum, a sturdy weekend with one asterisk, the edge rusher spot they never got to.
Pick-by-Pick
A straight-up fair deal on Tyler Booker at Round 2, Pick 1, value and slot in agreement. It fills a real need, too.
A reach for Tate Ratledge in slot 58; a little patience would have been rewarded. A need, and now a little less of one.
Xavier Watts at the Round 3 slot is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
They reached a country mile for Rylie Mills at pick No. 89, and the board is aghast. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Dont'e Thornton Jr. in No. 126 is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Taking TreVeyon Henderson in pick 165 is close to grand larceny; a running back that good had no business lasting this long. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Cody Simon in the 190th overall pick is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Brashard Smith in the 214th pick should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Somehow Ryan Fitzgerald was still sitting there in No. 241, and they pounced on premier specialist value. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
They robbed the room for Alex Mastromanno here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. They doubled down on a strength rather than a need.